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  Amusing Remarks about Nobel Prize  
The Late Coming Nobel Prizes

2007-9-17

Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, the two lucky scientists among all Nobel laureates, were admired by others not only for they were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, but their work won recognition from the Nobel Committee within a surprising short term, that is, only one year from the publishing of their paper to the award of Nobel Prize. It is really a miracle to win Nobel Prize within one year. However, most of Nobel laureates were not as lucky as them.
For example, after Murray Gell-Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1969, the scientists in international physics circle wrote articles one after another to indicate that the prize was 6 years late. That was why all physical scientists showed no passion and cheers when the result was announced by Nobel Committee. In each year since 6 years ago, all commonly regarded that the Nobel Prize in Physics of this year should be awarded to Gell-Mann.
But even 5-6 years¡¯ waiting was not that long. For example, Rontgen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 but he already discovered the X-ray as early as in 1895; Becquerel who discovered spontaneous radioactivity in 1896 was awarded the prize in 1903; Rutherford who discovered radioactive substances was awarded the prize in 1908; Alvarez who discovered the resonance phenomenon of elementary particle was awarded the prize in 1968; and Schr?dinger, the founder of atomic theory, was awarded the prize in 1933, and so on.
While there were some scientists waiting for 8-10 years: Nernst who discovered the Third Principle of Thermodynamics in 1912 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 8 years later; Bohr who raised his theory of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics as late as in 1922; Lawrence, the inventor of first cyclotron was awarded the prize in 1939; and Seaborg who testified the existing of plutonium was awarded the prize in 1951, and so on.
And there were scientists waiting for more than one decades. For example, the South African scientist Max Theiler who discovered yellow fever had to wait for over 20 years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951; and for Pauli, the Nobel Prize was also late coming. It spent 21 years to win the prize since his publish of paper; and Koch, waited for 23 years after he discovered the tubercle bacillus; Hess who discovered cosmic ray had to wait for 25 years; and Bes, after 29 years waiting, finally won Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967. But the Nobel Prize was even crueler for Frisch who waited for half a century. He discovered the nector dance of honeybees in 1919 and the waggle dance in 1925 but was awarded the Nobel Prize. And Lars Onsager who discovered the fourth theorem of Thermodynamics in 1931 but generally accepted by the circle in 1950s, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Nobel Committee in 1968, that is, 37 years later; early in the year of 1911, Rous, who discovered a great conclusion that the tumor was caused by virus, but his achievement failed to attract the attention of Nobel Committee, which made Rous wait the prize until 85 years old.
Landsteiner, was awarded his PhD degree when he was 23 years old and discovered the ABO blood groups of human beings in 1901 when he was 33 years old, but it was not until 1930 that the Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Landsteiner when he was already 62 years old. Born, who published his paper on statistics analysis of wave function 28 years ago before he was awarded the Nobel Prize, said that, which set all people attending the award occasion in deep thinking, 'an overwhelming number of physical scientists in the world agreed with and accepted mine statistics analysis of wave function, but some famous scientists did not agree with me, i.e., Plank, Einstein, and Schodinger, etc., therefore, I was rewarded the prize for the research achievement after 28 years.' So the Nobel Committee, in order not to trigger disputes inside scientists, would take the method of delay award. For this reason, a certain number of great scientists like Sumner (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946), Hermann (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953), and Alfven (Nobel Prize in Physics in 1970), etc. all had to wait for a long time.
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